Bulgaria Name 22 On Pre-VNL Roster

Twenty-two players were named on the extended Bulgarian men’s national team roster, announced by the national federation on Wednesday, ahead of the 2021 FIVB Volleyball Nations League. Experienced VNL star Svetoslav Gotsev is back on the team.

The 30-year-old middle was the best blocker (on an average of 0.57 stuffs per set) of the VNL preliminary round during the inaugural edition in 2018. In the 2019 edition, 2.05m-tall Gotsev finished fourth in the same statistical chart. However, he was absent from the Bulgarian line-up during the team’s latest official competition, the EuroVolley qualifiers in January.

Gotsev, who spent the club season with France’s Paris Volley, is among 14 players expected to join the Lions’ first training camp in Sofia this week.

Another eight players, including captain Tsvetan Sokolov and Todor Skrimov, have been given more time by coaches Silvano Prandi and Nikolay Jeliazkov to either finish their club duties or get some rest, and should start preparing with the national team after the Orthodox Easter holiday in early May.